I think it is fair to say that most text based games are based around sci-fi legend Star Trek, and it’s many deviations. It is a global craze that has makes this gaming platform so unique. To be able to play, you have to be able to read text, and use your imagination to create this gaming platform into something that you can sit at and play for hours at a time.

As an online gamer that I have been for many years, I have been involved with several text based games over the years, and each time, I have found them to be more interesting and inviting than their graphically centered counterparts. Whilst I do enjoy playing graphically centered games, they do not leave anything to the imagination, meaning that you cannot be creative, or provide yourself with your own entertainment. This is something which makes most text based games so wonderful, and provides them with a platform which any gamer can really make their own.

So in essence, it is my humbled opinion that the text based online multiplayer games provide much more for players to do, and therefore much more enjoyment for players than their graphical counterparts.

What do you think? Are graphical games better than their text based counterparts, or do you agree with me?

 Now, I should preface this by saying that I’m generally not a fan of MMOs. I played World of Warcraft for three hours once and wanted them back. However, I was genuinely looking forward to APB. By stripping the server-size down to 100 players, it removes the ridiculously contrived everyone-in-the-world-is-a-hero setup of WoW and its many clones, to create a world that (presumably) feels more believable. Who wouldn’t want to play GTA4 with 99 other real humans wandering around the city?

So yes, I was relatively excited about this. Someone genuinely innovating in the massive-multiplayer space, talking the talk like they meant it.

I’m not excited any more.

Watch the video. Ignore the four minutes or so of them ranting to random Dutchmen. Skip to the gameplay itself. Watch them demonstrate that yes, you can jump and crouch, yes it does look a lot like Grand Theft Auto. We knew all that. Then watch them get in the car and watch them drive, if you can call it that.

Keep in mind that this is one of the game’s designers playing his own game. He is driving quite slowly. The vehicle is slaloming so much that he can’t even stay in his lane. GTA IV had its driving-physics issues, but they’re NOTHING compared to what we’re seeing here. This is like someone drunk AND blindfolded driving across a skating rink.

Notice that when he does clip the opposing car, his vehicle rolls, ever so gently and slowly (and completely out of his control), until it connects with a building with a soft “thunk”. Then he has to go and get it repaired.

For a game designed by the creator of the original GTA, a game that is clearly designed for fans of that series, this will not do. If Realtime Worlds want any of those people to play this game, they’re going to have to do some serious work on their driving model before release.

Are there any reasons why the driving has turned out so badly? Difficulty in synchronising 100 fast cars on a single server could be one. Nothing in WoW ever moved beyond a trot. But if something so fundamental to the game can’t be done well, perhaps it shouldn’t be done at all.

Here’s hoping that they sort this mess before release, and my fears turn out to be ungrounded. Everyone cross your fingers.

After the initial countdown the two infected are revealed and the hunt is on.  Killing zombies is nigh but impossible, there are no safe rooms available on the map, so running and hiding are really your only options.  There are plenty of good secret places to take cover, some that are one way in and others that allow for an escape route if you get cornered. 

You and a few of your non-infected buddies could try and hold a spot and depending on how good you are you could win using this tactic.  The two favorite spots for this seem to be the twin roofs of the towers the map is named for and the hanging sheet of steel held aloft by the crane.

The entire feeling and flow of Quarantine Mode has been changed on this map.  The humans have better odds at winning due to the sheer size and inclusion of many dark corners and odd places to hide.  Gone is the holing up in the office before the safe room hammering zombies with endless clips of ammo to keep them back prior to the door opening.  Instead you are far more likely to survive by finding a good spot and sitting out the clock.

There are a lot of random self inflicted deaths on the map.  Falling into the water (unless you are a zombie) is lethal.  There is a canal with a great ledge for hiding on, if it was not for the poisonous gas, and let us not forget all of those afore mentioned ledges, people drop off of them like a bunch of drunken log rollers.

All in all I liked the map; any addition in content to shake things up and add new variations on the same old game themes gets a thumbs up in my book.  That being said I am still a bigger fan of Overdose as far as maps and game play go, but you will see my avatar hiding on the ledges of Two Towers again in the near future.

Hygiene

1. Can you remember the last time you showered? 

Fact: Frequently gamers lose their connection with reality and suspend their everyday routines to accommodate the demands of the game. Because these computer games are played in real time, any break in play can result in tragic consequences for the game.

Serial Sociopath

2. Do you get angry at people for disturbing your play?

If you’ve start yelling, berating or rudely ignoring people who knock on your door, you may be sliding further into addiction. Often gamers stop considering the feelings of others and forget social rules because their entire social network is now online. If you no longer have empathy for the feelings of others it might be time to go cold turkey.

Interview with the Vampire

3. Have you ever stayed up all night to play your game?

If you’ve been getting less than four hours a sleep per night because you were in the middle of a raid, it may be time to get help. Your body actually needs sleep to fight diseases, and maintain sanity. Often sleep deprivation can lead to hallucinations and general feelings of anxiety.  Gamers may often appear sickly, out of touch with reality, and generally nervous.

Foreign Language Skills

4. Do you know enough game terminology to become a foreign ambassador for the UN?

MMORPG Games often function as unique worlds complete with terms and phrases almost unrecognizable to the average person. If you’ve casually started referring to your guild and the quests you’re going on tonight, or if you regularly stump your friends by referring to Threshadons, Felguards or crit hits, you need help.

Supporting your Habit

5. Are you spending money you don’t have to support your gaming habit?

These games are all about money. If you’ve been paying for  hefty subscription fees, books, posters, calendars, and exchanging real money for pretend game gold, then this applies to you.

Overall, gaming draws unsuspecting people into turmoil as they neglect their kids, jobs, college eductations. If you answered yes to four or more of these questions then you should get enrolled in Gamers Anonymous because you are officially an addict. (And take a shower now, we can smell you all the way in cyberspace.)

After a long and grueling day of work, stressful bosses, customers, clients, what-have-you, people tend to look for a way to relax. Some turn to the boob tube, watching sitcom after sitcom of people having a worse day than them so as to laugh about it, the reality shows that are just too out there to actually be real, or the drama and story of a film. Some people turn to books to relax, delving into the world and the story of fiction to forget about the worries of the day, at least for a few others. Others, like myself, turn to video games.

Over the past few decades, video games have turned into an art and entertainment medium all of their own, attracting fans and bringing people into the gamer fold from all corners. No longer is it just the pencil-protector baring nerds that take a joystick in their hand. With the arrival of Halo on the scene, the previous oppressors of the nerdy ways, the jocks, saw that they’re pretty fun too. Girls are showing up on the scene as well, or at least, in larger numbers than they used to be.

At the ripe old age of twenty-one years, I have been a girl gamer since I first took the NES controller in my hand when I was two. Starting with Super Mario Brothers, I have climbed the gamer ladder, finding a nice comfortable niche for myself with Role-Playing Games, otherwise known as RPGs.

There’s something inheritly fun about taking on the role of the main character and being thrown into a desperate fight to save the world from some evil force and having to battle my way through it all. Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered (ignore the Labyrinth quote), through hard-fought and hard-won fights, humiliating losses, and a definite storyline twist or two along the way, you finally meet the nemesis of it all and have a chance to right the wrongs that he or she have made. And, of course, you end up on top, saving the world for another day, or until the next villain comes up with a world-ending plot of destruction and domination, whichever comes first.

A sub-genre of RPGs has sprung up over the past ten years, bringing people together in ways that was never thought of before. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, or MMORPGs/MMOs for short, have taken the basic concept of role-playing games and expanded it. No longer are you the main character, teamed up with an assortment of people who are aligned with you as you control them all, but you’re a single adventurer, traveling through the world and doing your own part to change things for the better. When needed, you party up with adventurers like yourself to tackle on bigger challenges, explore dungeons and areas of note, and defeat things that are too powerful for you to take on by yourself.

One of the reasons for the surge of MMO popularity has been a single game by a game developer named Blizzard, now known as Activision Blizzard. World of Warcraft, or WoW for short, has millions of players around the world, one of the largest fanbases for any one thing ever. Near the launch time for the latest expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, they announced that they had a current total of over eleven million players worldwide. These numbers were announced as of October 2008, and suffice to say, with the popularity for the game still as strong as ever, there will probably be more players before long.

Enough with the back story for now though, let’s get down to the actual game bits.

It Begins

I have been playing World of Warcraft off and on since 2006, before the first expansion pack came out for it. When I first started, I didn’t know much about the game, the background for it, the canon characters, or the history at all. My friends were playing it and they had bugged me about it for months before I finally gave in and grabbed a copy.

Starting up with it all, I was a newbie at it and I wasn’t ashamed to admit it. When I started up my account, I looked through the playable races and what there was to offer. World of Warcraft has a current total of ten races to play as, separated into different factions, one named the Alliance, the other the Horde, and ten classes to choose from, though there are specific class combinations available per race. At the time that I started playing, there were four races per faction, and one less class.

I looked over the factions with an unsure eye. The Alliance consisted of humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves, which were all pretty staple ‘good guy’ races in RPGs. I knew about them, I liked them all, they were the ‘good guys,’ they looked cool. I was initially drawn to them. The Horde, on the other hand, was made up of all the ‘bad guy’ races of normal fantasy: orcs, trolls, undead zombies that were made sentient by some dark magic, and a weird cow race that looked sort of like a Minotaur. The racial choices for them turned me off before I even gave them a chance, really. I ended up choosing the ‘good guys’ over the ‘bad,’ and I made a Night Elf Druid.

Before I get any flames on this, please note that I have all of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ references written like that because they’re simply opinions, and they’re not necessarily true. I didn’t know then, and I wouldn’t know for a while, that I would end up loving the Horde more than the Alliance a few years down the line. I just wanted to be what was aesthetically a better choice. Oh, how I was wrong.

I made my pretty little night elf druid, a little character that always had a smile on her face and was always bouncing around in place like she had too much sugar. She could turn into different animals and forms to get the job down, and she was pretty while she was doing it. The Night Elf cat form was one of the coolest things ever back in the day. I had a pretty good time with it all, until I started to talk to people.

Next time: Why you never tell anyone about yourself.

There are many opportunities for making money by joining the Thieves’ Guild, but first and foremost, it’s highly recommended that you become level 10 and complete the “Nocturnal” quest. You receive this quest from Nocturnal’s Shrine which is located north of Leyawiin on the road leading out East. Upon completing this quest, you will receive the Skeleton Key from Nocturnal. The Skeleton Key is almost crucial for Thieves’ Guild quests. The Skeleton Key basically assures you can get through a lock. It’s like a lock pick that never breaks. Without the Skeleton Key, you will be going through lock picks in the thousands unless you are some lock-picking prodigy.

After you get the Skeleton Key, complete all of the Thieves’ Guild quests. This is easier said than done, trust me, but that’s not what this guide is about. Once you complete all of the Thieves’ Guild quests, you will receive the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, which basically makes you two entities (one of them being the Gray Fox). What it allows you to do is to commit all of your crimes through it. If you take the cowl off, the guards won’t recognize you as the criminal.

While you can get money from the Thieves’ Guild quest rewards themselves, this is not the most lucrative part. With the use of the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, you can make as much money as you wish, given you have a strong character with a high sneak level. You can go to any city you want, put on the cowl WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING and sneak behind a guard or any other NPC and make sure no one sees you. You then slash them with the weapon you’re best with to kill them in one swift blow. Immediately after murdering the NPC, a guard will most likely be running towards you because somehow they can telepathically tell each other things. When this is happening, take the cowl off before the guard gets a chance to speak to you. He will then stop in front of you, ignore you and move towards the deceased body. You can loot the body of the person you murdered and sell it to a fence OR a normal store because for some reason stripping things off of a dead body in Cyrodiil is legal… don’t ask me why… You might be asking yourself, “What happens to the 1,000gp bounty that was supposed to be on my head?” The bounty is on the cowl’s head instead of yours. You can continue to do this for as long as you like in any city you like until you get the amount of gold you want. Be careful of attacking people other than guards, though. If you kill someone who could be useful for a quest for instance, he/she will no longer be available. The best place to use this method of making money is probably the Imperial City because the Imperial guards have armor that’s worth the most.

Image via Wikipedia

The latest statistics tell us that over 11 million men,women and children are subscribers to the Massively Multi-Player On-line Role Playing Game known to the toons as WoW and the general public as World of Warcraft. Experienced video gamers are often found debating their views on WoW versus other PC based games with an intimidating list of reasons why WoW is or is not the end all be all MMORPG. The real question, is World of Warcraft the end of your relationship? 

If you do not fall into the “experienced gamer” category then this article may serve as a warning to those unsuspecting men and women who would be caught uttering “It’s just a game!”.

It was only a short year ago that I found myself uttering those exact words to my “experienced gamer” boyfriend. He often spent 8 to 10 hours a night glued to his computer, chatting on Ventrillo (program that allows you to join chat channels with other players) with his fellow toons (players) organizing Raids (group run challenges) and talking shop. I had no idea how intense this game was and was losing my mind over his bizarre connection and attentiveness to what I considered as just a game. 

I had very little understanding of what the game was about and why it had captured my boyfriend and stolen his affection towards me. I was actually jealous of a game. It became very clear to me after months of fighting that I needed to understand this beast and conquer it. So I purchased the game, paid my $15.00 monthly subscription fee and began my journey into The World of Warcraft.

I would like to preface this by saying that although I was never much of a gamer I still consider myself to be a computer savvy lady and in my day was known to enjoy some Playstation interaction but this…was unlike anything I had experienced.

I was instantly obsessed and it was by no means healthy.

For a short time, it quieted the arguments in my relationship while we could bond over our achievements and acquired pets but I soon realized that our relationship was based more around WoW then anything else.

It became a fully interactive escape from my own life which at that time was lacking excitement and understanding and I fell for it, into it and never again said those dreaded little words : “It’s just a game!”

As a female WoW player and the, now, fiance of a serious gamer I would like to point a few things out.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Women Are Threatened By WoW:

1. The thought that something is more intriguing then they are
2. They don’t understand that most men enjoy killing virtual monsters so they can brag about how bad-ass they are
3. Their WoW playing boyfriend has a new friend in game and she’s a chick and he thinks it’s cool that she digs video games. Enter Jealousy.
4. Your boyfriend will at one time or another break plans he has with you for WoW
5. He will show more excitement about winning a roll on a piece of gear then about dinner plans
6. The man in your life may make mention that he thinks its sexy when a female Blood Elf dances to “Toxic” by Brittany Spears.
7. WoW is a part of his life that you do not understand and are not a part of
8. He may seem like a different person then the one you met and/or fell in love with
9. There is a good chance you will go to bed alone at least 3 nights a week
10. Your life is missing something and that something is your boyfriend.

This is of course not always the case. Some people are able to play WoW in their spare time, enjoy it for what it is and still be a productive member of society and their relationships. There are many people who cannot control their passion for this game and cause pain to the ones that love them. It does sound dramatic but it is true and I know that first hand.

A few months back my boyfriend confessed that he was bored and more so, he didn’t like the hold that this game had on his life. So he sold his two accounts (for very good money, this is against the user agreement!) and took a break. I continued to play for a couple of hours each evening feeling a little pissed that he got me involved in this and then backs out but he understood how I enjoyed my play time.

For a man that finds himself splitting his attentions between WoW and his girlfriend there are three basic ways to remedy this situation:

1. Convert your girlfriend into a WoW playing enthusiast. Keep her happy by helping her and giving her in game gifts!
2. Quit the game.
3. Get a grip on yourself! Take her concerns seriously and take a step back.

At the end of any day, no video game will rub your back when your sick, have sex with you or clean up after you.

For the women who are reading this article thinking my boyfriend is a nerdy loser, I challenge you to play a little WoW and get back to me.

Hobbies are important to have, they stimulate your mind, offer release from every day stresses and help you build a well rounded life. When a hobby crosses over into an obsession you are in danger of potentially causing negative juju.

I want to hear from the men who play World of Warcraft, the women who love them and the cynics. I dare you all to admit that it’s not, “Just a game”

Well, if you want to play a mud you need just some simple things to get you started. The first, being your computer, if you are able to read this article I assume you have one. The second being that of an internet connection so you can connect to the game (this is an on-line games so this one is kind of a given). And the third, the most important step, is client program to play the game on. We will talk more about clients in a bit, but for now just know that they are free and can be anything from your internet browser, telnet application, or your command line prompt.

Now the next step is to find a mud that you like and will want to play. My favorite site to check out new Muds is http://www.mudconnect.com/ because they have an advanced search with lots of information about Muds. Ok when you find the mud that you like and want to play the thing you need to grad is the IP address of the mud and the port it is located on. These two items are extremely important. Also checking out the mud’s homepage will give you more information about the mud.

Now the last step to playing these games is connecting to them. Most mud’s will have a Java based program on their homepage that will allow you to play the game from your web browser which is great to get started with, however you really need a nice client software if you are planning to really game for long periods of time. Now checking out the homepages of mud will sometimes show you client programs that are built for individual mud’s like http://www.bat.org/ has a really nice client built for that mud with some really nice features. Another mud client that I use is called a MUSH client and can be downloaded at www.mushclient.com; this client is a great example of an all access client that can connect to several Muds. Now when using a client and connecting to the mud it will ask you for the IP address and the port of the mud or world you wish to enter, hopefully you will keep that information written down and you will then be logged into the mud. Some Muds that are still popular today are:

• http://www.shadowsofisildur.com/
• http://www.bat.org/
• http://www.dsl-mud.org/
• http://www.aardwolf.com/
• http://www.dforces.net/

Mud has survived the test of time and is still around with several players to interact with, however like most MMORPS they are what you make of them. I wish you all well and if you are bored and want a game to play while you are at work or school I suggest a good mud, because since they are mainly text most people will still think you are actually working on something.

Image via Wikipedia

I’m here to share the story of my former video game addiction. My addiction first began when I was introduced by a friend to a free online game called Runescape, where you interact with massive amounts of people online, and compete to be the most powerful and rich player in the game.

I started out as a casual player, only getting online when my friends and I could all log on and hang out in the virtual world of Runescape. This casual playing soon started towards addiction as I began to play more and more each day, even when my friends weren’t on, so that I could surprise them and show them I had gained a few levels over them while they were offline. This trend continued as I began to explore new features of the game, including quests, leveling up, and most exciting of all the PvP system that was implemented in the game. I enjoyed playing Runescape very much, and before I knew it I was spending at least one hour a day to get from level thirty to thirty-one or thirty-two. Hardly did I know, this was just the beginning.

I began to explore the features of the wilderness in Runescape, and I realized I would need to be a lot stronger and a lot richer if I wanted to be one of the top dogs of Runescape. So of course, I began to invest A LOT more time into this game. I would have to get my magic level to sixty-five or my strength level to seventy if I wanted to be strong enough to beat the next opponent. I began spending hours and hours of time leveling up to get the experience points I needed to gain levels. I would come home right after school and log on to Runescape, get into the groove, and before I knew it, it was already 10:00 P.M. or later, and I hadn’t even done my homework yet! Unfortunately, this trend continued as I always told my parents I was doing homework or projects, so that I could spend more time on Runescape. I needed to be the best.

Every night I would play Runescape, until my parents forced me to get off of the computer. Yet after I had logged off, all I could think about was playing Runescape. I had become so involved in playing Runescape, that I had lost most of my friends, and despised when I had to go out with the family. The only thing I wanted to do was Runescape. I was addicted. Night after night, I would neglect to take care of my schoolwork, and ended up with lesser grades than I was entirely capable of.

Realizing that I had a serious problem, I set out on a mission to correct it. I figured I would quit Runescape, so I reluctantly and gnashingly dropped all of my wealth and logged off. That hadn’t helped much. Now I felt crappy and addicted, because I wanted to play AND all my items were gone. A few days later when I couldn’t resist the craving to play, I turned to another MMORPG, Guild Wars. I began as a ranger and moved quickly through the game. I created several characters and became heavily involved with other players in my guild through PvP. Every night we would set out to win fame in the Hall of Heroes, to earn the in-game title of Hero. Hours upon hours of every day would be spent playing in Heroes Ascent to earn this title. In short, a replacement game didn’t help. The process began all over again.

This addiction ended about two years ago, thanks to help from God, and the drive to totally abandon the path of video games. The most recent video game I’ve been involved in is Call of Duty 4, but when I realized I was spending too much time on it, I quickly withdrew and uninstalled it. The BEST advice I can give you is to steer clear from online MMORPG’s, if you want to be in control of your life. If you like video games, console games which don’t involve competing with other players to accomplish long term goals in a virtual world are your best bet.

Thanks to my loss of video games, I have gained many more friends, much more fun in life, as well as involvement in many more hobbies ranging from blogging, drawing, and acting, to parkour/freerunning, longboarding, and actually hanging out. Most important of all I can truly have a better relationship with God and Saviour.

This game, let’s just say I’m glad I never dabbled in this:

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

The Witcher is a Role Playing Game (RPG) that first came out in October 2007 although the enhanced version came out in September 2008.  Like many other such games, it is set in a fantasy Medieval world where magic abounds and, again like many other games, the hero of the story is called upon to save that world using both magic and sword.  In many ways though, that is where the similarity to other RPGs ends.

For in this game you don’t get to select or customize your character; you are “assigned” one.  You must play the role of Geralt of Rivia, a famous (or infamous) Witcher.  Witchers are people whose job it is to eradicate evil from this world.  They have been taken from their homes when they were but children and genetically modified.  As a result, they become sterile, immune to many of the dangers normal to this Medieval world (such as the plague), and gain certain abilities.  They also become social outcasts.

You are thus forced to view the world as an outsider.  You are never really accepted by anyone (though many would like you to be “on their side”) and yet it is your job—perhaps even reason for existing to save that world.  And as often as not you must save it from itself. 

For this is a world filled with slavery, racism, corruption, drug use, and broken or dying dreams.  But there is just enough light (often in the most unexpected places) to keep you going; to make you as a gamer believe that there might still be something underneath all that grime, nastiness, and casual cruelty worth saving.  It’s an emotional response that not many RPGs can evoke.

The game evokes this response because the surroundings in which you play seem so real.  If you walk through a clutter of pigeons, they take off; children play hopscotch; adults gossip; if you drip blood on the floor the occupants will clean it up.  And then there are the seemingly mundane yet moral choices you are constantly called upon to make.  Should you sleep with the prostitute or spare the life of the person who had been stealing?  Whatever you decide, your actions will have consequences.  And, just as in life, those consequences will not be immediately evident nor will doing the right thing necessarily produce a good result.

How did a video game manage to produce such a morally ambiguous yet utterly believable world?  The answer is simple: it didn’t.  The game is based on the books by the world-renowned Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski.  One of them, The Last Wish, has finally been translated into English and others are forthcoming.  I highly recommend both the book and the game.